That depends almost entirely on your own background. Since Bartitsu is basically a cross-training system between old-school "scientific" boxing, jujitsu and the Vigny method of stick fighting, a student with solid experience in analogs to those styles - random example, wing chun + amateur boxing, judo and, say, sabre fencing - can pick up all the basics pretty quickly. After that, it's just a matter of refining the cross-training process so you can combine them together effectively.

After that, it's just a matter of refining the cross-training process so you can combine them together effectively.

I've always cross-trained, experiencing more difficulty in differentiating, than in combining. I boxed and wrestled from the time I was a kid. Twenty-five years of Shaolin Ch'uan-Fa Kung Fu, eight years of TKD (Chung Do Kwan), ten years of Kenpo (EPAK), two months of Judo (ouch) learning to do break-falls. Most of this was done concurrently, until my commitment to my career became a priority. I have almost no experience with sticks or canes, but do o.k. with close-range edged weapons.

Currently, I teach a private group one night per week, and I have been working with a couple of BJJ guys for a little over a year, in order to get my ground game up to par. I am pretty much training a base of CMA, having eliminated the practice of forms or weapons completely. I concentrate on self-defense arts and sparring, exclusively.

I perused the Bartitsu web page and it piqued my interest. It will be a couple of years before I can commit to any in-depth training. What is the age grouping within Bartitsu? Although I am HWP and still fairly flexible, I'm not getting any younger LOL.

"The Grave of Captain Alfred Hutton" would make a good name for your new clubhouse. If it was a pub, I'd drink there.

I have never encountered Bartitsu, or anyone who practises it. Is there an element of dressing up/LARPing? I've always imagined it to be like:

Every club has its own take; some are basically RBSD/combatives with a bit of old-school Bartitsu for spice, and some are full-on LARP (as in people wear steampunk/neo-Victorian getups while they train). The Chicago club "uniform" is based on c1900 exercise gear: